SAN DIEGO WATER FACTS

Single-family “super savers” who use less than 4,488 gallons (or 6 hundred cubic feet) per month will avoid cuts.

Customers will get customized water “budgets” in their regular water bills starting in July.

The baseline for water budgets is 2005-07.

As drought bears down on California, Mayor Jerry Sanders yesterday set the stage for San Diego's first mandatory water rationing in at least two decades.

His proposed strategy would force most single-and multifamily customers to cut their outdoor water use by 45 percent and their indoor water use by 5 percent starting as soon as July 1. Overall, typical homeowners are up against reductions of about 27 percent.

Commercial customers will face 45 percent cuts outside and 3 percent cuts inside, a nod to the difficulty of trimming water use inside many companies.

Conservation targets are based on conserving 20 percent citywide. They could rise if the drought worsens, and they could decrease if water supplies grow. The plan won't start until the city's water suppliers impose cutbacks.

Sanders said the blueprint is an equitable approach that was developed during weeks of meetings with residents, business leaders and others.

“We must prepare for a different water future in San Diego,” Sanders said. “This plan can make our target. It doesn't stop short, create loopholes or paint false hopes.”

A City Council committee will consider the issue starting Wednesday, and the full council is expected to address it next month.

Customers likely will attend those sessions with misgivings.

The San Diego Unified School District, one of the largest water users in the city, immediately planned to appeal the allocations for its properties.

“We feel we have done more than our share” with conservation programs at schools, said J. William Naish, the district's utility management supervisor.

He's concerned that the district may be forced to let playing fields go brown, and he's not optimistic about conserving more indoors.

“The kids gotta be able to go to the bathroom,” Naish said.

Until now, conservation efforts in San Diego and elsewhere in the county have relied mainly on voluntary measures that generated about 5 percent savings – not nearly enough. Across the region, water agencies are polishing their drought plans, which include behavioral restrictions, higher rates and water budgets for individual customers.

In San Diego, by far the region's largest water user, conservation mandates will be backed up by extra fees. Residents and businesses who exceed their allocation would face penalty rates of from $2.42 to $4.85 for each hundred cubic feet over their allotment. The penalties would be based on the amount by which they exceed their water budget.

Sanders proposed additional $100 fines on customers who routinely exceed their allocation, and officials would consider putting flow restrictors on the water lines of the most extreme scofflaws.

“What we want to do is make sure we are getting people's attention,” said Alex Ruiz, assistant director of the city Water Department.

Water budgets will be set in four-month chunks that are seasonally adjusted to account for differences in use from summer to winter. Ruiz said indoor water use is based on engineering estimates of sewage flows.

Customers' target numbers will be printed on their bills. Once the city sets individual water budgets, residents would be free to use their allocation indoors or outdoors with few other restrictions.

Typical single-family residential customers in San Diego use an average of 14 hundred cubic feet, or 10,472 gallons, each month.

Lani Lutar, president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, said officials need to rapidly ramp up their public outreach.

“If people are not aware that this is happening and they are not informed appropriately, this could have devastating financial impacts,” she said.

The mayor's plan includes a “high-user adjustment” designed to penalize the top tier of single-family residential customers, those who use more than 14,960 gallons, or 20 hundred cubic feet, per month.

City officials said those users would be forced to make larger percentage cuts on their outdoor water than typical users.

The blueprint also includes a waiver application for customers who think their allocation isn't fair. For instance, some homes now include more residents than they did a few years ago, which would tend to increase their water demand. In addition, San Diego leaders won't press residential customers for more cuts if they use less than 4,488 gallons, or 6 hundred cubic feet, per month. About 21 percent of single-family residential water users fall into that category, according to the city.

The so-called “super savers” include many homes with one or two residents who have taken several conservation steps, such as installing low-flow appliances and drought-tolerant landscaping.

Deidre Puaoi, who lives alone in a small Mira Mesa house, was relieved to learn that she's likely to qualify as a super saver. But she's concerned for her friends and neighbors who have families that require more laundry, dishwashing and showers.

“I don't know how they are going to cut back,” she said.

San Diego's proposed minimum threshold is designed to partially address a criticism of its preliminary plan, which was rolled out last month without important details.

At the time, residents complained that the proposed formula would punish low-volume water users because they would have to cut back by the same percentage as people who wasted water regularly.

The current plan would still leave neighbors with different water “budgets” based on water use from 2005-07. City officials adopted that period to neutralize any efforts by residents to game the system by boosting their water use in recent months. Customers' water budgets are based on water usage at individual properties, even if ownership changed hands.

San Diego's rationing plan is prompted by signals that the Metropolitan Water District, Southern California's main wholesale supplier, will trim deliveries starting in July. The agency's plans should come into focus next month, but water managers are expecting cuts of at least 10 percent.